Armaments position agreed

The University of Edinburgh has declared that it does not and will not invest in companies involved in the manufacture of controversial weapons.

These include anti-personnel mines, biological weapons, chemical weapons, cluster weapons, depleted uranium ammunition, nuclear weapons and white phosphorous weapons.

Responsible Investment

The announcement is the latest commitment to be included in the University’s updated Responsible Investment policy and follows on from the announcement earlier this year of its new policy on investments in relation to fossil fuels.

As part of that, the University divested from three of the world’s biggest coal and tar sands companies - Shell, RioTinto, and BHP Billiton.

This is an important phase in our review and demonstrates the University’s commitment to responsible investment. As well as our divestment from these major companies and our ongoing commitment to zero investment in manufacturers of controversial weapons, we will continue to examine the positive case for additional investments in low carbon and renewable technologies.

Agreed by Court

The new commitment was agreed by the University’s governing body, the University Court.

I’m pleased the university is clarifying its stance against investment in controversial weapons. There is always more to be done in pursuit of ethical investment, and I look forward to working closely with the university in taking forwards a review of the ethical investment policy as a whole. I hope we will be able to identify further ways to make our investment portfolio more ethical and sustainable